What Sophie Said

They've only gone and done it again. I challenge you to find me an amateur dramatics/musical theatre group stronger than NK Theatre Arts, based at Romiley Forum. Having been in plenty of shows and watched more than I can count, I like to think I've got a pretty keen critical eye when it comes to shows, and NK Theatre Arts just hit the jackpot again and again. On Saturday night, I went to watch 'Magic of the Musicals', an evening celebrating 30 years since the group began. I should probably start with a slight disclaimer: I'm usually a bit wary of performances like this. Often, showcase style performances can get a bit samey, or there's such a huge range of ability that it's potentially only enjoyable if you have a friend or family member in the cast. Neither of those worries needed to be a concern when it came to Saturday night. The evening was made up of songs taken from all of the musicals performed by NK Theatre Arts over the last 30 years, ...

I've been meaning to write about this for absolutely ages, but my time since leaving London seems to have flown by. This probably applies mainly to those moving to London or another big city for work, as it tends to be in more expensive places that you might rent a room rather than a flat or house. There were definite pros and cons to living in a house where the homeowner was one of the occupants, so I thought I share a bit of that list in case you're considering options for a move of your own. My situation To quickly summarise my own situation, I was working in London and rented a downstairs bedroom in a house not far from the tube station, for about 18 months. It was handy for my commute, in a family area and was a homely, quiet house. I lived with the homeowner, who was older and had begun renting out the rooms when her own children grew up and left home, and two other renters. I was the only person living downstairs, and the only person who used the downstairs sh...

Something has been on my mind for a long time and I think I've finally found the words to speak about it. Let me start by saying I'm all about personal development. I read and listen to an awful lot, I have daily practices centred around gratitude, meditation and affirmations and I am all for people learning about their brain, personality and trying to make changes. However, I think there are two essential parts to a personal development journey, and I think one side is being ignored by too many. In my eyes, the two sides are: - developing your own self - developing the way that 'self' presents itself to the world and interacts with others When I engage online with the whole 'personal development' world, I feel that the side being shouted about is the first one. I'm not trying to deny this stage in the process is essential. We could all do with a bit more self-belief, self-esteem and understanding that we can take actions to better ourselves an...

It's time for the first reading list of the new year and I've gone for two non-fiction and two fiction reads, all of which were completely different... One Day, One Night - Portraits of the South Pole, Dr John Bird and Jennifer McCallum *copy kindly sent by a PR for review consideration When Dr John Bird was offered a position working at the South Pole for a year, his wife Jennifer passed the tests to go out, too. This book is their story of that year. The pair take turns to narrate chapters, and I really enjoyed this dual perspective of their time out there, both as a couple and as two working individuals with different jobs to do. There are also black and white images throughout the book, captured whilst they were there, which added an extra touch of personality and familiarity to their story. Possibly my favourite part was Jennifer's descriptions of the initial process of acclimatising to the new environment, and I enjoyed the level of detail throughout. Des...

As I shared last month , I'm trying to introduce new ideas or mantras into my life that allow me to be the best I can be every day, but aren't so strict that it's easy to stumble once and tell myself I'm a failure. If I set myself rigid rules, such as having to do a set list of things every single day, the one day I can't tick them all off - however valid the reason - my critical voice rears its head and that's when my anxiety finds it easy to creep up on me. That's why this year I'm goal setting and planning in a different way; I'm focusing on the tiny steps which add together to meet the big goals, rather than getting overwhelmed by the huge picture every single day. One of the new little mantras I'm using is ' just one more '. This can be applied to so many things, and that's why I love it. The basic concept is always going that little tiny step further. Whether it's a huge task I've worked on or I've only made...

I used to sit firmly in the camp of those who hated Mondays. It's easy to moan that the weekend went too quickly, or be unhappy you're heading back into a working week and to just get caught up on the general opinion society feeds us that Monday is a villain. The problem is, if you wake up on a Monday morning dreading the day and the week ahead, that's the tone you're setting for your whole week. You're starting everything on a negative note, dragging yourself out of bed and telling yourself you're worn out. What you tell yourself, your mind believes, so even if you didn't feel too bad when you first opened your eyes, by the time you've complained for a few minutes, you're probably feeling pretty gloomy about the day ahead. I went through a period a few years ago of tweeting pretty much every morning how worn out I was. I was putting out so much negativity and I ended up feeling even worse, simply because I was telling myself I didn't w...

At lunch today, we were discussing the idea of ongoing change and trying to judge yourself less harshly. This is the time of year for goals, resolutions and planning and it's easy to get swept away with the idea you can suddenly change 20 habits and things about your life at once just because it's January. Realistically, slow change with baby steps is much more sustainable, and habit change takes time and effort. This all stemmed from the fact I was trying to justify getting a couple of treats in with the weekly shop, or the fact we ate lunch out both yesterday and today. Until we realised that this week I've worked out five days, eaten mainly very well and healthily and I've been pretty productive. So all in all, that's a successful first week of January! I'm very good at beating myself up for one slip up, or for the first 'failure' in a new plan or regime, and it's a surefire way to make yourself feel guilty and negative - not to ment...

I've finally seen the film everyone is talking about. Now I understand why they're doing that and why everyone can't stop playing the soundtrack. At the root of the story is a man who has huge dreams and the woman he loves, who loves him so much she'd follow him wherever that journey took him. Telling the story of F.T. Barnum, creator of the first circus, The Greatest Showman is a musical journey of epic proportions. With a star-studded cast, a phenomenal soundtrack and evoking pretty much every emotion possible in the space of a couple of short hours, this film is one of the best I've seen in a long time. Hugh Jackman is nothing short of brilliant in the role of Barnum, and every other person making up the cast is perfectly selected and utterly deserving of their place. There are so many smaller storylines and themes that feed into the bigger picture, and I was captivated by every single one. Visually, it's stunning. The circus itself is the most mag...

Well, I did it! I completed the Book Challenge 2017, sent to me by my auntie back in January 2017. I only swapped one of my original choices for a different book, and I definitely broadened my horizons, picking up things I would usually ignore. If you want to follow the whole journey, the posts are here: My book picks Months 1-3 Months 4-6 Months 7-12   I wanted to share a few lessons I learned from completing the challenge, so I've kept it to a nice neat five points. 1. I need to get creative when it comes to reading challenges. Most book challenges I see involve people setting themselves a certain number of books to read in a year, but to be honest getting through books isn't my problem. I read at a high speed, and I devour books one after the other. Yes, I could set a high number, but I don't feel like I particularly need to increase the NUMBER of books I consume. The key for me is broadening my scope and trying different styles, themes and authors...

This is an element of my anxiety I don't think I've spoken about on here yet, and I guess that's because it's taken a long time to figure out. It's far easier to talk about the issues I've already worked on or feel like I'm getting more on top of than those that make me feel a little lost. Car journeys. Travel, in general, but I'll focus on car journeys because this Christmas break confirmed the fact I've made huge progress with this particular panic. Where did it begin? My problem with travel emerged very early on in my anxiety. In fact, it was one of the first issues to pop up and at first it was directly related to my emetophobia (a phobia of sickness). The first week my anxiety really reared its head it manifested as though I had some kind of sickness bug. This was at the time when I used to commute on the train to university, and the nausea made the prospect of stepping onto trains very unappealing - it was the motion combined with the...

I absolutely love a good routine. I was that person who looked forward to going back to school after holidays so I had a schedule again and all my usual rehearsals were back on the timetable. I don't like to change plans last minute or to not know what's going on. The festive period was wonderful, filled with lots of family time and travelling and food and snow, but there's a part of me that is now loving being back to my normal routine. I'm in my own flat again, I set my own rules and I'm making some changes. Last year was a year of huge change for me, and I feel like the first five or six months in this flat were a bit of a test run. Now, we can really hit the ground running, use what was learned last year and make this year even better. My morning routine is back on track, with meditation, my gratitude journal and a workout. Next week, it's back to regular weekly meetings and rehearsals, which I'm very much looking forward to. I'...

It's time to share my thoughts on the books I've been reading over the last six months to complete the Book Challenge 2017 . I missed my September update so there are six books to share here. For the other six, head here and here . That's a lot of books, so here we go... A book written by an author with the same initials as you The Sorrows of an American, Siri Hustvedt Erik Davidsen is sorting through his dead father's papers and finds letters from an unknown woman. He follows his father's letters and diaries through the Depression and First World War. At the same time, a journalist won't leave his sister alone and this new tenant has a stalker. Erik's role as a psychiatrist colours everything he sees in others and himself. This is beautifully written - at times a little jumpy, but that mimics the human mind. Erik's psychiatry-coloured view was written well and things are revealed in a slow and intriguing way. It's just great writing, and...

Well, here we are. 2018. A new year. A new week. Whether you see it as a fresh start or just another day, here we all are and it's another day, week, month and year to make positive changes. 2017 was a huge, huge year for me. I'm not going to do a long, reflective post because I've done quite a lot of those throughout the year. It was a year of so many huge changes that I had to write as I went along or I'd never have captured it all. 2018 is a year of continuation. I want to continue to build on this new life. To continue to enjoy my work and play. To continue to work on both my mental and physical health. To make tweaks to improve life at home and life out in the world. Every new day, week or year offers us another change to make a change. We can do what we've always done, or take a little step towards something different. I've got a huge list of plans and ideas of things I want to do and achieve this year, so here's a taster of ju...